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Monday, August 22, 2016

How Much Glassware Do I Need?

It came to my attention last week that I have a lot of glassware!! AND I don't use it much at all. In fact, I only opened this cupboard earlier this month to get out the blue water jug for my daughter to use during band practice. Each time I put it away or get it out, I look at all those things that I own and don't use or rarely use.

I decided to pull out everything except the pitcher and jugs, since I knew those had been used recently. I laid it all out on the table, literally!

Same things...just a different angle.

I love canning jars. However, I don't can any foods! I like them to use them as vases for flowers particularly, or just for decorations by themselves. I also seem to like to save ANY glass jars for...for what I don't know!! I just think they are cute, versatile, and practical. But in reality, I don't end up using them. I had to be brutally honest and cull these jars down to the minimum. And if I prefer canning jars for flowers, I think that means I can be done with vases too. I like one of them a lot, but it never works right. The opening is much to wide, so I never use it.

This is what I kept:

That's four large canning jars, and one small one (with shells and stones). Three short vases. My sugar bowl and gravy boat that matches our china (we do use these some). And two glass bowls. Oh, and I did keep the large cream colored bowl which isn't pictured.

And I'm letting go of all of these things:

Two canning jars, three vases, a bowl, and two other random jars donated or recycled. The crystal vase was a wedding gift. I'm starting to realize it is not my style, which makes me less likely to use it. I'm not going to keep it out of guilt or just because.

I put everything I'm keeping back into the same cupboard and it now looks like this:

I feel much better about what I have stored in there. I didn't realize I had so much glassware that I didn't use! And that I had added to my collection with other little jars that I though were cute. We should only keep what we really like and will use.

I did tell myself that if the canning jars don't work out as my only flower vase option, that I will allow myself to purchase one I really like. I don't expect that to happen, but at least I have options!

How much glassware do you have? Do you use all of it? If not, why do you keep it?